Tag Archive: US

In case you missed it yesterday evening:“As a show of support for Julian Assange and Wikileaks http://www.aspen-international.com/ (Still up guise) was defaced by Anonymous. Aspen international is a UK based law enforcement/military equipment manufacturing company.

Julian Assange (founder of wikileaks for any n00bs in the vicinity) is currently seeking asylum in Ecuador for the charges he faces in Sweden. According to BBCNews, the government of Ecuador will be making its final decision concerning the request in the next 24 hours. President Rafael Correa is said to be a fan of Wikileaks and will be consulting with not only Sweden and the UK but also the US in the matter. Read more: BBCNews|Ecuador ruling on Wikileaks’ Assange due ‘on Thursday’

One of the reasons Californians should still be Occupying, as if school tuition increases, locking up students and professors for protesting on campus, and police brutality weren’t enough on May 12th 93,000 (according to CBS News) lost extended unemployment benefits. According to the US Bureau of labor (Feb 2012) almost 11% (That’s about 4,147,000 people) of the entire state of California is unemployed. This number 11% is calculated by taking a sample of unemployed families every month across the nation and measuring the amount of change over time. To read more on how the US Gov. calculates unemployment and to try to make an educated decision on whether or not you think 11% is the actual number go here: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Here is the article from CBS: (CBS News) MERCED, Calif. – “A lot of Americans are still suffering from the investment disasters of 2008. Back then, Congress extended unemployment benefits to 99 weeks in many states — but tomorrow, that extension ends and 236,000 Americans are about to get notices that the checks are over, as CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports.At the Community Action Agency in Merced, Brenda Callahan-Johnson is bracing for a flood of long-term unemployed seeking emergency food, housing and financial aid.“A lot of these people are not going to know that they are not getting unemployment until they get the letter in the mail, and they’re going to be scared,” Callahan-Johnson told CBS News.Tomorrow 93,000 Californians are losing extended unemployment benefits.Callahan-Johnson told CBS News correspondent John Blackstone that she had never seen anything like this.“In 19 years, I have never had this many cuts in unemployment at the same time,” she explained.In California’s agricultural heartland, Merced is being hit hard by federal law that cuts extended benefits in states where unemployment has fallen. In the last year, California’s rate has dropped from 11.9 percent to 11 percent. But, in Merced, it’s 20 percent.“Merced County is experiencing dire unemployment,” Callahan-Johnson said.While finding work in Merced is difficult, finding places where people used to work is easy. One plant, which made ladders, closed in October — taking with it 140 jobs.The closed Pepsi bottling factory once employed 40. Sixty people used to make parts for Toyota at another closed location.” Continue reading: Thousands to lose long-term unemployment benefits, even where it remains sky-high

“BREAKING: North Carolina Voters Pass Amendment 1 North Carolina voted to pass a constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage along with civil unions for gay and straight couples.The ban recognizes marriages between one man and one woman and as “the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized.” Polls suggested that many voters did not know that the measure will also have an effect on straight couples. North Carolina already has a law against same-sex marriage and becomes the last former Confederate state to add such a ban to its constitution.”